Sales rise in June for Walgreens

DEERFIELD, Ill. Sales at one of the nation's largest drug store chains increased 8.4% for the month of June.

Walgreens disclosed its earnings for the month on Tuesday, stating that its $5.67 billion June sales were aided by Duane Reade stores, which contributed 3 percentage points to the total sales increase.

Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 2%. Duane Reade stores, however, are not included in any comparable store results.

Meanwhile, June pharmacy sales also saw a positive gain of 6.8%, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 1.8%.  The effect of calendar day shifts positively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 0.2 percentage points. Comparable-pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months and by 0.3 percentage point due to lower incidence of flu. Pharmacy sales accounted for 65.6% of total sales for the month.

Total front-end sales increased 10.9% in June, including 5.1 percentage points from Duane Reade. Comparable-store front-end sales increased 2.2%. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 2%, while basket size increased 0.2%.

At June 30, Walgreens operated 8,038 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 7,541 drug stores, 639 more than a year ago, including 283 stores acquired over the last 12 months.